Category: news

Good bye 2017

It is time to start planning our good-byes to 2017. Time is relative, but in PBG terms, twelve months have passed with incredible speed since we blogged for the first time in 2016. We can only assume the next few weeks will go just as fast for us as the last twelve months.

We have experienced growth, rebranding, new products. As many other businesses, we have experienced external, unusual circumstances in the form of Brexit. And, looking back at 2017, we can confirm this has been a transitional year for us, a year where we have prepared ourselves for 2018.

Here are some of the notes that we have taken in the last twelve months in preparation for next year:

Sales Team Growth

2017 has seen our sales team grow a third to enable us to cater for all the regions in the UK. As usual in our company, we have provided the new sales force with extensive training to ensure they will be ready for what 2018 has to offer.

Our sales teams cover all regions of the UK

New brochures and products

We launched our Go2 brochure in May and our customers received it well as the brochure covered three of our brands with extensive offerings.

Our Go2 brochure, despite initially lukewarm results, was finally a success and became synonym with convenience and easy access to our most of our products. Our business is continually evolving and our marketing strategy will aim to focus more into each brand.

Alma and Duro ranges are now part of the Imex offering. Each has very striking characteristics; Alma -derived from the word alma in Spanish- has been designed with delicate lines in mind, and Duro -derived from the word hard in Spanish- with a more masculine outlook, none have compromised in quality and include stylish furniture.

Digital Marketing Growth

This past 12 months we have seen some very exciting developments in the Digital Marketing department.

We launched our new group website! -www.purabathroomsgroup.co.uk- after several months of painstaking design. The new group website hosts our blogs, links to our five brands and their brochures and information about our locations.

You can now also find a new section dedicated to what can be achieved with the group brands called ‘Be inspired‘.

Our social media profiles have experienced growth of over 100% in the last twelve months. Are you following us yet, have you subscribed to us, joined us yet? Why not head over and connect with us!:

Follow the #PBGstyle hashtag in your internet search for inspirational designs and bathroom displays around the UK.

E-Business

Our E-Business has grown exponentially. With more and more customers now registering to our E-Business platform, we are looking forward to providing our products in way that is more convenient for you.

We put together a blog back in July, where we laid down the benefits of using our E-Business login instead of more traditional methods. It just works!

Looking forward to 2018

We are very excited to enter 2018 having prepared for it for the last twelve months. With KBB just around the corner and new products, brochures, social media activity, new customers joining the Pura Bathrooms Group and business growth, it already looks hugely positive!

The Pura Bathrooms group is committed to providing efficient, well designed and eco-friendly products and as part of its continued growth incorporates in all its brands a comprehensive range of durable, high quality bathroom products that perform above the industry standards. Read more on our growth in our November 2016 blog.

In preparation for KBB Birmingham 2018, we now look back at what we achieved in the 2016 exhibition, taking note of the positives to make it even more successful next year.

Pura Bathrooms Group has been a regular exhibitor at KBB for a decade. We had a stand in March 2016, and as always it was a fantastic experience for us.

About KBB

KBB Birmingham is the UK’s largest established kitchen, bedroom and bathroom brands gathering.

During KBB over 400 exhibitors meet to provide insights into the technological advances in the Industry, as well being presented the Innovation Award Winners.

Design

Our design last year took a modern approach, where all our brands were integrated in a multi-shaped stand. In our design, visitors were able to find inspirational designs with Imex and Deuco integrated in the same display. Separate Flova wall boards and a sitting down area gave our visitors a comfortable place to take a break and discuss our designs with our CEO, Graham Wickens.

Tall virtual view of our stands

Side virtual view of our Deuco and Imex displays

Virtual view of the back of our stand

Inside virtual view of our Flova wall stands

Building the displays

Back in September I published our blog How to Build a Bathroom Showroom. I based my blog on a time-lapse that we had created while our teams built the new Conference Room in our HQ in Crowborough. In my blog I described a step-by-step guide on building a luxury bathroom showroom.

Our exhibition stands follow a very similar step-by-step procedure. From it’s inception in the form of a design agreement, to the design itself, gathering of materials and completion, our teams put together high quality, solid stands that could well stand the test of time, beyond the four days during which KBB takes place.

Check out these photos with our team working on our stands for KBB 2016:

Our stands

The result of all that hard work by our designers and building teams came together beautifully in our stunning Group stands:

KBB will take place from the 4th to the 7th of March 2018. We will share our new design for the 2018 exhibition nearer the time, watch this space!

Will you be attending? let us know in the comments below so we can look forward to meeting you then!

b2b

As a Digital Marketing Executive in a medium sized b2b -business to business-, I often do research on trends and topics to keep up with technologies, tips and tools to make my -work social media- life a little bit easier.

Keeping up to date is part of my job, digital marketing is very demanding in that respect.

The level on the evolution of digital marketing is quite focused too, as we operate from small details like a certain word or expression to make adverts more attractive to full branding campaigns involving projects like this very blog.

B2B meets Social Media

As part of my research I rely on good quality information, one of many sources of quality information is Hootsuite. The social media planning tool is not only that, a digital marketing tool. It is also a source of a valuable blogs on social media and digital marketing that, in a way, confirm our social media activity is bang on trend.

In less than a decade, I have seen first hand the power of social media increasing exponentially but I still feel its true potential is yet to be discovered. Businesses, understandably, still see social media as that online activity driven by teenagers that may or may not be beneficial for them. For businesses though, social media is a totally different animal.

More specifically in b2b digital marketing, social media can be immensely helpful. Comparatively, b2c marketing has its own advantages, where the end user is directly involved with the business.

As result, more data is collected providing an insight on their impression of the brand, the product, give clearer feedback and have a closer relationship with the business; it served companies like Apple, HP and Microsoft, now marketing mammoths, create their strong loyal fanbase, to the point of nearly becoming a cult.

Increase brand awareness: the more presence in social media, the better understanding a customer and an end user will have of the brand. Instagram is a great platform to develop the brand taking into account existing customer’s feedback, due to its responsiveness.

Which leads me to Hootsuite’s blog. Taking into account our b2b marketing strategy, I have picked from their blog the points that I feel are more relevant to us (this blog is therefore loosely based on some of the points enumerated):

Generate leads

LinkedIn was originally created as an online platform to enable professionals to establish new career contacts, but only in the last few years it has developed into a platform ideally positioned to create business connections from a b2b perspective. LinkedIn could easily become the social media platform of choice for b2b advertising.

Example of customer engagement in one of our LinkedIn posts

Provide a customer experience

“Even if you aren’t on social media, most of your customers expect you to be”.

Example of engagement in Twitter

A brand unable to cater on a social media platform is seen as a business with little to offer. From an attractive post to Twitter or LinkedIn, linked to a well laid out website, with information, videos and images of the desired product, to a quality Customer Service boosted by an active social media, an experience can be positive enough that the customer will likely come back for more.

Website traffic and SEO

All social media provides an ideal platform to showcase your brand or product and, in a simplified yet efficient manner, the option to redirect a potential customer to your website, where there is more information about a desired product.

Follow competitor’s strategies

Information that only a few years ago was unknown to competitors is now available with a mouse click or mobile tap. Instantly.

Share content faster, easier and less costly

With effective planning, quality material and no budget, an advert linking to a website is more powerful than an image hidden in a magazine, which hasn’t got a link to carry that experience to a company website.

Advertising our new brochure in Twitter

Build relationships

Twitter has had its ups and downs, mostly due to lack of revenue. Many people ask themselves how is Twitter keeping its head up? I believe the answer lies in its effective way of transferring news, make them viral, and develop them into a conversation that everyone has a voice. A ‘good morning’ to your followers on a cloudy Monday quickly becomes #mondaymotivation and so the conversation begins…

Example of one of our motivational posts in Twitter

If there was ever any doubt of how can social media be implemented in a marketing strategy, not only are businesses adapting to social media, social media is also adapting to businesses to offer better advertisement and more exposure and engagement, all valuable assets to any business. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, YouTube -see our previous blog ‘Engaging through the right advice‘-… all have found a particular way to make advertisement easier for businesses.

Even governments are taking advantage of social media, albeit often clumsily, to increase their presence in modern society. Trump using Twitter on his electoral campaign and more recently the UK’s Conservative government ads in Instagram -above- are clear examples.

Follow the #PBGstyle hashtag in your internet search for inspirational designs and bathroom displays around the UK.

The Pura Bathrooms group is committed to providing efficient, well designed and eco-friendly products and as part of its continued growth incorporates in all its brands a comprehensive range of durable, high quality bathroom products that perform above the industry standards. Read more on our growth in our November 2016’s blog.

New product brochure: Go2

We have created a convenient 3-in-1 brochure called Go2, which brings together our Pura, Imex and Puracast products* and enables you to find any product, price and code easily.

The brochure is available right now to browse and order online. Our new brochure includes the new Pura Flite baths.

If you want to view the new brochure, click above and you will be automatically redirected to our website, where you can view it. If you would like to order a hard copy, click below and fill in the form.

If you have any questions do now hesitate to speak to one of our Customer Representatives on 01892 611240.

ISH Exhibition

The 2017 ISH Exhibition in Frankfurt is the world’s biggest showcase for innovation on bathroom design, energy efficient heating and air-conditioning technology, and also renewable energies. We are excited to announce our rimless WCs. The exhibition will take place between the 14th and 18th of March 2017.

Focused on the efficient combination of water and energy, it is the world’s largest exhibition of its kind. The offerings range from sustainable solutions in sanitation to innovation in bathroom design, energy efficient heating technologies, renewable energies and environmentally friendly air-conditioning, cooling and ventilation technology.

ISH trade fair encompasses all areas of the future of building solutions at any level.

With now 50 successful years under its belt, the exhibition attracts more than 2,400 exhibitors and market leaders. During the space of 5 days the exhibition will witness their latest product launches, home solutions and technologies onto the world market.

The exhibition hosts international trade visitors from the installation and retail trades, engineers and architects, housing and property companies, service providers, manufacturers, and even public authorities and universities.

ISH takes place at Messe Frankfurt Exhibition Centre, in a vast area of 250,000 square metre. The largest groups of visitors come from sanitation, heating and air-conditioning trades.

Pura Bathrooms Group will be proud to attend the ISH exhibition with a new line of Imex products; the new Imex rimless and toilet seat. Our MD, Graham Wickens, will be there, if you are also attending don’t forget to stop by and say hello, we will look forward to meeting you.

New Imex products

The new rimless range

At the ISH exhibition we will be delighted to announce officially our new range of Imex rimless WCs, manufactured using an integrated, anti-bacterial glaze, specially formulated to provide a super smooth finish which repels any deposits. This is to ensure long-lasting hygiene protection.

The range offers a modern, precision engineered solution to the contemporary bathroom that sets it apart. With no internal rim, the innovative flushing system swirls water across the entire WC pan, removing any residue and leaving the WC clean and fresh. Our flushing system achieves this even at volumes of water as low as 4/2.6 litres per minute.

Unlike traditional box rim loos, the open design and clever flushing system delivers a splash free flush and as there is no rim to harbour bacteria or gems. This reduces the need for chemical cleaning products making it an easy to maintain, more hygienic choice.

Being WRAS approved, the precision engineered flush system cleans the entire pan at low water volumes, saving water and removing residue efficiently.

The rimless range will come in different styles to suit all tastes and bathroom schemes, and is available to order right now.

New seat collection

With soft close we aimed at the ultimate in luxury, the seat and cover close gently and whisper quiet with minimal requirement for touching the WC seat. This makes it very convenient for all the family.

Quick release function allows the entire seat to be lifted from the WC by simply pressing the button, allowing a thorough cleaning by gaining access to previously hidden areas of the toilet. This system allows for the seat to be refitted by simply clicking back into position.

The Pura Group is committed to providing efficient, well designed and eco-friendly products and as part of its continued growth incorporates in all its brands a comprehensive range of durable, high quality bathroom products that perform above the industry standards. Read more on our growth in our November 2016 blog.